It has now been proved that you can indeed be too smart for your own good, at least in a business context. New research shows that the optimal IQ for managers is roughly 120. This theory is based on dividing the bell curve into three regions:

Let’s say that your IQ falls at the point marked above, which happens to be the optimum. The colored bands show the size of three groups:

To the right (blue) are people who are smarter than you. They may like you, but they will not look to you for any difficult decision.

To the left (yellow) are people somewhat less smart, within 16 points. They respect your intelligence and look up to you as a leader.

To the far left (grey) are people who do not understand you at all. They think you are arrogant and condescending.

The theory is that the optimal IQ for leadership falls at the point where the size of the middle group, minus the size of the smarter group, is greatest. A little calculus finds this optimum at 1.2 SD, or roughly 120 on the standard IQ scale. Other theories have generally assumed a continuously positive effect of increasing IQ, but with diminishing returns.

Researchers plotted intelligence scores versus perceived leadership attributes, for a large sample of middle managers at seven multinational companies. All attributes, like the one shown below, had a maximum value around 30 on the Wonderlic scale, or 120 IQ points.

I have long suspected that medium-bright students, who must struggle to make good grades, end up more successful than the super smart ones who breeze through school. Throw in some military experience, and you’ve got the perfect employee.

Of course, this is in a corporate context. It assumes you are working with a reasonably large group of people having normative IQ distribution. There have been no studies yet on scientists, engineers, or professionals in private practice.

So, if you are languishing in your company’s IT department, maybe you are just too smart to be a manager. I’ll see you at the Star Trek convention.